Four Kinds of Rain

Bob Wells was a radical community activist from his college days at Johns Hopkins. Now in his fifties he is a psychologist with a dying unprofitable practice. On the side he is a guitarist with a Rock group that plays weekly at a local club. He has gambled away most of his money and lost his wife. An attractive singer comes into the club and offers to sing with the group. The interaction is excellent musically and Bob sees romance with her. But she doesn't want to hook up with a broke loser. Bob loses his idealism as he figures a way to exploit one of his patients and come up with $5,000,000. The bodies pile up left and right in gory fashion. Bob ends up as an ultimate loser. But, Jesse, the vocalist has a happier ending.

I couldn't put it down. First it was like, this is sooo cheesy. Then heard the William Burroughs chuckling darkly in the background. It was faint, soft, almost a cough. This book is so wonderfully dark and strange. To follow Bob Wells' descent from middle-aged idealist to the hopelessly lost serial killer whose victims are, finally, his closest friends is to witness sixties American political and social idealism coming unstuck under great pressure. The terrible thing is that even at the end, when he has betrayed everything he ever stood for and everybody he ever loved, I still found myself caring about Robert Wells. Noboby but Robert Ward could write like this.

I just finished reading Robert Ward's new novel, "Four Kinds of Rain." The thing about Mr. Ward and his writing, and the reason I bought this new book of his, is that he's a true story teller. Anyone who read "Red Baker" knows this. He sticks firmly to the plot. There is "no fat" in his work. What he consistently gives us is a fully-realized novel, devoid of self-indulgent prose. "Four Kinds of Rain" confirms this. And then some. Here is a story of one Bob Wells, a Baltimore psychiatrist (and by the way, no contemporary writer I know of writes about the great city of Baltimore better than Mr. Ward) who is, shall I say, down on his luck. All his life Bob's been a good liberal guy serving the poor. Until temptation shows up in the name of one his paranoid patients, Emile Bardan. Emile is an art dealer. And he's owns a priceless work of art - the lengendary Mask of Utu - worth millions. You may think you know what happens next but this story has more twists than a pretzel. I, for one, really enjoyed the ride.

MY EYES ARE ON STALKS FROM BEING UP HALF THE NIGHT FINISHING FOUR KINDS OF RAIIN! I STARTED IT YESTERDAY AND COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN! IT IS GREAT! FOUR KINDS OF RAIN IS UNIQUE. A MUST READ FOR MYSTERY FANS, SUSPENSE ADDICTS AND ANY ONE INTERESTED IN THE HUMAN DILEMMA. THIS IS MASTERFUL WRITING THAT IS FILLED WITH WIT AND DEPTH. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK BY ROBERT WARD.

Until now, Robert Ward was best known as the author of the classic working man's novel "Red Baker" (1985), and for his work on such television dramas as "Hill Street Blues" and "Miami Vice." For a new group of readers, however, he will be known as the writer of "Four Kinds of Rain," an intriguingly dark and delightful noir novel. Bob Wells is a psychologist in Baltimore, serving the poor and downtrodden. His patients include a lot of single moms on welfare and homeless vets. He seldom makes a dime, but for this grizzled old activist, that's OK. As he sees it, Bob is the last man in town who never sold out. Still, even a committed radical like Bob has bills to pay. Such is his desperation that when a paying client -- a wealthy art dealer with paranoid delusions -- finally comes along, the doctor loses his head a little, and starts to forget his instincts. Bob's greed only magnifies when he meets a woman, the new lead singer of his classic rock band. She's a great gal and they really hit it off. The only problem is, she refuses to have anything to do with a man who's broke. Clearly Bob needs money. And his new patient has a fortune in rare art. This lucky convergence inevitably leads Bob down a very dark path to larceny, betrayal and, ultimately, murder. "Four Kinds of Rain" is as black as a chain smoker's lungs, but it's also deviously funny, as Ward takes us into the mind of this very human, but very messed-up man. The plot is twisted and suspenseful, but it's the wonderfully original characters that really bring it all to life. Welcome back, Mr. Ward. We missed you.